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[perrollaz]

Wonderful pictures, thank you for sharing- makes me feel as I would be there too :-)

[Angel_Ariel]

Awwww! Fab trip report so far Kelly! Can't wait to read the rest!

[PrincessEnya]

Love reading your trip report! Thanks so much for writing it all down. I want to Earl of Sandwich for the first time this summer and absolutely loved it as well.

[kelly.dylan]

Thanks everyone, i'm trying to whizz through these few days as I can't wait to get to Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. Will hopefully get day 4 up today

[kelly.dylan]

Sunday 23rd Dec-Day 4

Today was our planned lazy day! Dylan loves his sleep and the late nights/early mornings really affects him! We had the Steakhouse booked for the 1pm Character Brunch so we skipped breakfast and Dylan slept until 11.30am  :shock:
 
I thought as we had lots planned for Christmas Eve & Christmas Day the extra sleep would help recharge his batteries

We headed over to The Steakhouse in the Disney Village around 12.30pm and stopped for a quick photo on the way



We arrived for Brunch slightly earlier than our booked time so had to wait a bit for a table, along with a few other families too!

We were asked to take a seat at the bar where glasses of orange juice and sparkling wine were on offer.



Whilst waiting we saw Eeyore and Tigger making their way around the room.

After about 10 minutes we were taken to our table, a small table for 2 that had obviously been pulled away from the table next to us and squashed up by the waiters till!

Can you tell where we are going with this meal??? :evil:

No sooner had we sat down and ordered our drinks Eeyore & Tigger had gone! Dylan went up to get his food and came back with a plate of chicken wings and some Mickey Mouse shaped potatoes, he wasn't very impressed with the choices of food at all. I had some beef from the carvery which was very rare but the only meat they had and some rissotto which was lovely. I have to admit Dylan wasn't wrong with the lack of choice!

As we ate our meal Pluto and Minnie were doing the rounds. They totally by-passed our table! Dylan went up to get some pudding and came back with a little jelly and chocolate cake, I had some lemon meringue which was to die for!!!

But the characters had all gone and whilst eating our desserts the waiter produced our bill!!! We ate our pudding paid the bill and left, after having a character Brunch we had seen no characters at all! Great! The only saving grace to this meal was that the waiter charged me for 1 adult and 1 child whereas at 13 i had expected to pay an adult price for Dylan. We left the restaurant, wishing i had complained about everything but it was Christmas and it didn't seem that important!

We headed off to the park and realised I had left Dylan's signing book bag in the restaurant.




Normally I wouldn't have been that worried but this was a special hard back photo book I had made for our christmas trip. We popped into City Hall and they called the restaurant and confirmed it was still there so we just needed to pick it up later that day! Phew!

I took a few pictures at the Christmas with Belle photo location (without Belle, Dylan doesn't do princesses anymore  :cry: )




And a few more pics around the castle



And after a few more rides we popped into the Disneyland Hotel for yet another cocktail and to wait for the Descent of the Stairs at 4pm.



It was a lovely christmassy version which we watch from the 2nd floor as the bottom of the stairs was packed with small children!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msT4M-lyk5s

Dylan had a few photos after too



And off we went back to the park for a few more rides



We left the park fairly early as we knew tomorrow was going to be a busy day. We still hadn't had a photo with Santa Goofy, Mickey, Duffy and the big man himself Santa!!!



Stopping off for yet another chocolate Marshmallow Skewer



And a quick wave from Santa in the Disney Village



We stopped off in The Steakhouse to pick up Dylan's signing book and whilst we were there told the manager that during our character lunch we may have 'seen' plenty of characters but not one of them came to our table! She wasn't surprised at all, said sorry and that many families complained and she will be talking to the staff!

Dylan talked me into yet another cocktail, this time in the Hotel New York! He also wanted to get a children's cocktail shaker to take home and a glowing ice cube!!!



After our drinks we noticed characters in the hotel Lobby, I took one photo on my camera of Dylan & Pinocchio and my camera battery decided to die and rather than mess about changing it over i took pics on my phone but we saw Pinocchio, Chip, Dale, Piglet, Mickey & Minnie  :thumbs:



And that was Sunday, tomorrow was Christmas Eve and possibly one of the BEST days we have ever had in Disney.....

[SwipatronSparks]

ooh update soon i can wait to read more!!

[norhel]

Nice report :-)

[Aurora1]

Great TR and pictures! Seems you had an amazing time. Can`t help beeing a little jealous :oops:
I watched youtube ( descent of the stars) and saw Beauty and the beast, that is still my dream, seeing them together!
Looking forward, reading more!!
Aurora1
Did I mention that you have cute son? Or handsome, he is not so small anymore!

[kelly.dylan]

Great TR and pictures! Seems you had an amazing time. Can`t help beeing a little jealous :oops:
I watched youtube ( descent of the stars) and saw Beauty and the beast, that is still my dream, seeing them together!
Looking forward, reading more!!
Aurora1
Did I mention that you have cute son? Or handsome, he is not so small anymore!

Ah thank you, he's really changed since last year! He looks so grown up in some of my photos!

We watched Belle & The Beast  on Christmas Eve, was just beautiful! It actually gave me goosebumps!! Hope you all had a lovely Christmas x

[princessemily]

Really looking forward to hearing about Christmas eve and Christmas day!

[BlackPearl]

Lovely report! Can't wait to read about Christmas.  

[kelly.dylan]

Monday 24th Dec-Day 5

So finally Christmas Eve had arrived!!  :santa: Yay!!!

Today we had so much we needed to do! Visiting Santa, Duffy, Mickey & Goofy in his Santa outfit were top of our to do list!!

We didn't have breakfast until 8.30am. The weather, again, was beautiful! Maybe a bit windy, but the many pairs of thermals and tights i had packed hadn't been touched as it was so mild for December!!

We caught Minnie on the way out of the hotel! I think Dylan was slightly embarrassed as she wouldn't let him just stand next to her, she took his arm and put it around her waist and kept kissing him haha!



Off we went to the Park!! Dylan told me if i'd said 'It's Christmas Eve and we're in Disney' once i'd said it a thousand times!! Just being in Disney for Christmas was so exciting!!



We arrived just after 9am and noticed that one of the offical photographers was waiting in the Gazebo by Goofy's photo location. His Meet & Greet was listed as 10am so I asked her what time he would be arriving and she said maybe 9.30am, result!!

We hung around and Dylan had a couple of pics in the sleigh



It was now around 9.20am and Goofy arrived early!! We were first in the queue which was fab!



From here we made a mad dash to the Santa Claus Village! It didn't open until 10am but we knew if we didn't want to queue for 2 hours we would have to get there before it opened!

Well there was already a good 40 people infront of us but it was much better than the 2 hours we waited last year! I think in all we waited around 45 minutes til it was our turn  :thumbs:

Now Dylan is 13, he doesn't believe anymore but we were in Disney, for christmas, and I wanted a photo of Dylan & Santa ( am i mean   )

So in we went, Dylan stood next to Santa and shook his hand!!! He asked Dylan how old he was, and when Dylan told him he was 13 his reply was hilarious!!!   '13 you say, i remember when you were this big' he said, holding his hands about a foot apart 'you looked like a sausage'.  Well both Dylan and I got the giggles!! He then told Dylan to sit on his knee for a photo and told him 'I can still remember the first time your mum sat on my knee!!' Dylan's face was a picture, he was trying so hard not to laugh!!!



We left Santa and walked back up to the Boarding House to see what time Duffy was out and as we arrived he was already there, we seemed to be timing everything perfectly today!!



After meeting Duffy and asking him to send a christmas message to Emma & Kyra ( @Littlemermaid83 )
 


(and haven't we got a whole load of grief since Emma haha!)

We made our way up to It's a small world to catch our favourite Elf Alfie ( @PeterPanFan ) and for Dylan to give him a little prezzie for christmas.





After watching the parade we stopped for a quick cookie and hot chocolate



Then off we went to the Studios to get a quick picture with Mickey Mouse, well the queue was big and Dylan wanted to have a go on RnRC instead!! Promising that we would get a photo with Mickey before we went home!!

Now I was determined to get Dylan on ToT this trip but even going over the ride sequence with him, thanks @CaptainRocket for the info, he still wouldn't do it!!! Crush had a silly queue as to be expected.

We wandered back over to the other park and after a few rides caught Mickey in Videopolis with the JBB!

 

We wanted to be at the Disneyland Hotel for the Advent Calendar opening at 5.15pm and also had dinner in Cafe Mickey booked for 7pm so we headed back to our hotel to get changed and then off we went for what was a fab evening!!!



We got to the Disneyland around 4.30pm and there seemed to be lots of people already there so Dylan and i took a spot close to the stage in the middle of the Main Street Lounge.

By 5.15pm it was manic, and absolutely boiling!!!! But out came Santa, who opened the Advent calendar and gave all of the children either sweets, a keyring or lollypop which was lovely!



So Santa left, and so did some of the crowd and after about 10 minutes Dylan got slightly bored! I told him not to worry it would be well worth the wait!



And my word was it worth the wait! I can honestly say i've never seen anything so lovely in Disney before!

We watched the most beautiful show with Santa, Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Donald, Scrooge, Goofy, Max, Pluto, Stitch, Chip, Dale, Clarice and many of the princesses including Beauty & The beast!

 

Ok so I may have gone slightly OTT with the Christmas Eve show pics haha!

I took a few videos too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHlQNZswqqo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRTmEp1NZLc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKy3jtGKJbU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcH4-Wgz3tw

So after many goosebump moments we left the Disneyland Hotel around 6.30pm for our meal at Cafe Mickey.  Stopping to watch the street entertainment in the Disney Village on the way back



We were sat upstairs again tonight, on the exact same table as 2 days before!!



Dylan went for the Fish & Chips, I had Steak again. For some reason as much as i like the fish in Disney it makes me sick!! Really strange but wherever i eat it, Cafe Mickey or Toad Hall etc. I always feel sick, dizzy and generally awful the next day!!



And yet another Ice cream!!



During our meal we saw Mickey, Eeyore, Goofy



And an extremely friendly Tigger



Now when I say extremely friendly he was amazing, spent time at our table, gave Dylan lots of hi-5's and I even got a hug too!!!

Then he performed the most energetic dance routine! I dont think we had laughed so much all day since Santa's sausage comment  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri6qppUVc7E

I wish I had filmed for longer now!! Dylan's face in the video is so funny, he laughed for ages at first and then I think he thought if he kept laughing and watching he might kept pulled up to dance haha!!

We left not long after the Tiggeriffic dancing   But before we did I asked the ACC if by chance we knew Tiggers friend as he was so friendly. We thought it could have been Alfie or Eddie as it really was like he knew us, he was just amazing. But sadly no!! And as we left he gave us a big wave from accross the room!

Dylan and I left, confused haha!!! It didn't take long to solve the mystery, I later received a message from forum member @DisneyBud asking if we'd been in Cafe Mickey as he thought his 'friend' Tigger may have seen us!!!

Well @DisneyBud you made our evening, you were so much fun and when we next go to Cafe Mickey in May I really hope your amazing friend Tigger will be there again too  

Just thinking about that evening now still makes me laugh, Dylan and I watched the video on my camera so many times in the hotel room before we went home!!! Definately one of the highlights of our trip!!

The final part of our Disney Christmas Eve was to go back to the park for Dreams! Everything looked so pretty in the park!



We had a quick go on BTM, it seems much faster in the dark and now Dylan says since he's been on RnRC it seems tame haha!



As we were slightly later today our usual spot for Dreams at the front of the castle was taken so we decided to watch from the side



I didn't think we'd get a great view tonight but some off the pictures i took were lovely and it was nice to see Dreams differently



So Dreams had finished and as we left the park Dylan and I both talked about what a fab night we'd had and the magical day we were both looking forward to tomorrow!!

And tonight Dylan got to take the little train around the lake back to our hotel!! He had asked all week but tonight we both couldn't wait to get back and for our next Disney adventure to begin in the morning!!!

Day 6- Christmas Day To follow soon

[Martin B]

Wow! We are going in Feb and I hope we get the same tigger as you!!
Great stuff as always Kelly!

[CinderellaSparkle]

Aww that was lovely! And those comments from Santa made me giggle as i read it How fab!

[Ravenseye]

Thank you for posting, your reports made me 'well up'. Crazy huh? as it's not even MY trip!!  :minnie:  
Look forward to more